Today, February 3, 2023, is National Women Physicians Day!
To recognize the day, I thought it would be fun to put together a roundup of my favorite blog posts on Women In Medicine over the past two years.
1. Gendered Expectations of Physician Accessibility
My reflection on how my daily clinic experience is vastly different from that of many of my male counterparts.
“Patients didn’t hold it against my male colleagues for not answering their emails. ‘He’s just too busy,’ was a common sentiment expressed. The unexpressed corollary was that somehow, I, as a female physician, was not too busy.”
2. Galadriel, Girl, You’re Being Gaslit
A satirical piece warning Galadriel, from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, about the dangers of the men around her gaslighting her.
“What is this gaslighting I speak of? No, it’s not a light for dark places when all other lights go out.”
3. Dear Patient: An Open Letter on Why I’ve Been Working Part-time During the Pandemic
A piece I wrote in December 2021 in which I highlight the struggle of working as a physician while trying to continue to homeschool my youngest child before the approval of the Covid-19 vaccine for children.
“This has been my life, and the life of many women physicians, since the pandemic.”
4. Serious Hair
A reflection on over twenty years of trying to figure out just how I’m supposed to look as a woman physician, weaving in my GenX childhood and movie influences.
“If you want to be taken seriously, you have to have serious hair. That line has lived in my brain since 1988. I was fifteen years old, and I was convinced Melanie Griffith’s character in Working Girl had revealed one of life’s secret truths.”
5. First Smiles and Second Opinions
A reflection on how the world judges women whether we smile — or don’t.
“Maybe, for all of my life, the smile has been the mask.”